Music that takes the high ground
Melodies from Tibetan plateau and unusual instruments provide an enchanting experience, Zhang Kun reports in Shanghai.
The sound of music from the Tibetan plateau captivated the concert audience at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music Opera House on July 3.
Presented by the Song and Dance Troupe from the Golog Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Northwest China’s Qinghai province, together with musicians from the SCM, the concert was the fruit of the conservatory’s cultural assistance to Golog, the source of the Yellow River.
It was not just the music that was of interest, but the instruments as well. A 56-year-old Tibetan artist, whose name in Mandarin means peace, introduced his two-stringed instrument to those attending. With an ox head on top, the sound box at the bottom was made from ox horn and covered with lambskin, and its strings were made of horse-tail hair. “We used to play music on the pasture, and folklore has it that the animals would be touched by the music,” he says.
Today few people can play that music, and even fewer can make the instrument known as niujiaoqin, or ox horn fiddle. It is recognized as an item of Golog’s intangible cultural heritage, and Peace, or Heping as he is called by musicians from the SCM, is an official inheritor.
Tang Shengsheng, a composer and music teacher with the SCM, was fascinated with the folk music in Golog, and decided to adapt her previous creation, a piece on the piano named Origin of the Yellow River, for the local instruments. She brought together Heping and 11 other musicians from the Golog Song and Dance Troupe, who play traditional folk instruments, including a flute made of the bone from the eagle’s wing, the Tibetan Dharma Drums, which have a history dating back to the ninth century, and a conch trumpet.
At the concert, Tang herself donned a ceremonial Tibetan robe, and played the piano to accompany the 12 ethnic musicians, who were introduced as a new music group named Amne Machin, after the snow-covered mountain in Golog that is home to the source of the Yellow River.
“It’s all very impressive, the magical combination of ethnic instruments and natural vocal performances, the fantastic fusion of the piano and mysterious Tibetan instruments, and the authentic flavor of Golog music,” said Jiang Fang, a Shanghai-based music critic, who was in attendance at the SCM Opera House on July 3.
The concert also consisted of traditional songs and dances from the region, as well as established songs familiar to the Chinese public for generations.
Following the premiere in Shanghai, the concert production will tour Xining, the capital of Qinghai, Golog and Beijing.
“With Shanghai being the estuary of the Yangtze River, the collaboration between Golog and Shanghai brings together the two most important waterways of China,” says Hou Liyu, deputy director of the SCM.
It has been a decade since Shanghai began providing assistance to Golog. By last September, the municipality had sent 98 administrative team leaders in four groups to Golog, alongside academics and experts across a wide range of fields, such as medicine, agriculture and the arts. Among them were Liu Zhaolu, head of the orchestral music department, and Tang.
“Golog artists’ singing is like the snow-covered mountains, pure and natural, with a striking beauty,” Liu says. “If we could provide some professional music training, I am sure they will create more possibilities that will take us by surprise.”
“I began to play the piano at 4 years old, and all through my music education, from Shanghai to Germany, I played Western classics by Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin,” Tang told China Daily before the concert. “I believe now is the time for me to share the colorful music of China with more people.”
Heping is glad that he could share the Tibetan songs and melodies with musicians from Shanghai, and even happier to find that people are interested in the music and instruments.
“Even when we were rehearsing, someone came up to me, asking me to teach them to play the niujiaoqin,” says the Tibetan artist.
After the premiere, he became more confident, saying, “I could maybe even take my music to other countries.”
Golog is located in the heart of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters. In order to work with local musicians and create the ensemble piece, Tang made four trips there over the past year, staying a few weeks each time.
“At first we, from Shanghai, could not adjust to the high altitude, and had trouble falling asleep,” Liu says.
It was no easy job collaborating with ethnic musicians.
“Back at home, they were used to singing and playing the instrument at the same time,” Tang says. “It was usually a one-person show. For me, the challenge was to identify the characteristic of each instrument and create an ensemble of balance and beauty.”
The ethnic musicians could not read music scores, as they hadn’t been formally trained.
“But they all have great intuition for music,” Tang says. “We improvised during the rehearsal, and when I was away we listened to the recordings and practiced from our audio records.”
The SCM, established in 1927, was the first professional music school in China. “The school has always emphasized China’s national musical heritage,” Hou says.
Since the very beginning, the school had a Chinese music department. The SCM pledged to provide more cultural assistance to Golog and other areas among the underdeveloped regions of northwestern China. On July 3, the SCM officially authorized the educational administration of Golog to introduce the SCM music level examination system to the prefecture.
“In the future, we will keep on helping the development of music education in the northwestern regions of China by providing aid in music teacher training, according to their actual need,” Hou says.